plead for it To which I answer Thou hast herein dealt notoriously wicked with T. S. as T. C. hath done with others before For T. S. hath not said he is perfect nor confest that the people call'd Quakers doth own themselves to be perfect and therefore thou art a lyar for affirming it And because the ground or foundation of thy query is a lye therefore I shall give no further answer to it Thou queriest Whether John Pitman Jasper Batt Robert Wastfeild c whom thou call'st Preachers and Leaders in that Faction be members of the true Church or of the Devil Because T. S. saith That those that remain in sin in the unconverted and imperfect state and are seduced and deceived being out of the truth they are enemies to the cross of Christ and are not the church of Christ And thou saist The forementioned persons at a Meeting at Glaston with T. C. protested that they were not perfect nor free from sin but pressing after it Therefore thou queriest How they shift themselves from being Enemies to the crosse of Christ I answer Though thou hast laboured much to bring forth this work of wickedness hoping thereby to trap the innocent yet it will not at all serve for thy purpose For though in the words of the Apostle we did in plainness and in the simplicity and integrity of our hearts declare which thou call'ft a Protestation That we were pressing forwards towards the mark of the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus not as though we had already attained or were already perfect but were pressing after it yet this doth no more prove us to be of the Devil or enemies to the cross of Christ by any thing that T. S. hath said then the Apostles words did prove him to be of the Devil or an Enemie to the cross of Christ For though we did say not as though we had already attained or were already perfect yet we did confess openly to the glory of God That we did witness him come and to live in us who is perfect and that we did believe that perfection is attainable in this life through him and that having this hope it doth purifie our hearts even as he is pure who worketh all our Works for us and in us and that in this Faith we are pressing after perfection And of this Faith did we make confession openly as many can testifie and this is the Faith to which vve are converted and so vve do not remain in the unconverted estate neither are we seduced or deceived but are established in the eternal living Truth and not out of it and by the Spirit of Truth which vve have received vve are able to judge of seducers and deceivers And vve did likewise declare that vve vvere by nature children of Wrath as vvell as others and that vve had long travelled under the burthen of sin and bondage of corruption vvhilst the strong man armed kept the house and that we had known the terrors of the Lord against sin And vve did likewise say That there is sometimes in us motions to sin from vvhich vve are not freed and that vve are exercised vvith temptations but those motions not being consented unto nor the temptations joyned with or entered into but resisted in the povver of God those motions are not imputed to us as sin for it is no sin to be tempted And we did also declare That we now vvitness the stronger come to ease us of our burthen and to save us from our sins and to deliver us from the bondage of corruption that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our lives and this doth not prove us to be no church of Christ or prove us to be of the Devil therefore vve are without the reach of thy envy for vve are none of those which T. S. speakes of who are enemies to the cross of Christ but thou hast not contrived thy Work so as that it may serve for thy purpose for thou canst not strike us all at once as it stands which appears to be thy intention neither canst thou divide our Testimony so as to take us in confusion or contradiction which thou hast laboured after for if we had protested as thou saist that we were not perfect then thou hast nothing against us as to that it being one main charge against the people called Quakers though a very false one that they say they are perfect and now if we have said that we are not perfect then are we clear of that charge But thou art not willing we should pass so and therefore thou saist thou dost question whether we did not lye notoriously c. And here through thy envy thou haft manifested thy folly and in striking at us thou hast wounded thy self For if we did lye notoriously in saying we were not perfect then it will follow that if we had said we were perfect we had spoken truth and yet if any say they are perfect or free from sin such are accounted hypocrites so if any confess that he hath not attained but is pressing after perfection he is suspected to be a notorious lyar and if any through the love of God should confess to his glory that he is redeemed from sin and transgression and brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God where he doth not commit sin such a one is said to be an hypocrite What work is here Confusion with a witness Who can escape thy slanderous tongue Truly thou art so drunk with rage and envy that it even darkens thy understanding so than thou canst not see thy folly and confusion but because of the perverseness of thy spirit thou errest in thy Work as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit Thou sayest The reason why thou proposest this query is Because we ovvned T. S. to be a Minister of Christ and vvould vvitness for him and vvith him so that doubtless vve must be one in vvitness To which I say Yea doubtless we are one in witness and our witness is true and doth agree together and thou hast lost thy labour in striving to make our witness disagree For our vvitness is for the truth and in the truth and there is union and agreement and not confusion And thou saist A perfect Church without sin cannot admit of an imperfect Ministry Pitman and Batt being Preachers amongst the quakers I say The church of Christ cannot admit of an imperfect Ministry for that Ministry which is imperfect is unsound and untrue and such a Ministry cannot be owned by the church of Christ For the sheep of Christ know the voice of Christ and follows him but will not follow imperfect unsound voices and although such grievous Wolves like thy self should array your selves vvith the sheeps clothing to deceive yet by your strange voices your imperfect Ministry is knovvn and by the Spirit of Truth vvhich rules in the Church of Christ are all
be considered what the Law and the Testimony is and that he further saith The Law is in the heart the Light is in the heart the testimony of Jesus the sure Word of Prophesie is in the heart the Word of Faith in the heart And now come to the matter to which thou scoffingly and wickedly saist Now he is fit for the work out with the Scriptures of truth and follow the Law of his own heart of his own imagination and be sure Salthouse will prevail and carry all before him Thou hypocrite Is this outing of the Scriptures of truth to speak truth in the very Scripture-language Hath not T. S. quoted the Scriptures for proof of what he asserts concerning the Law in the heart the Light in the heart the Word of Faith nigh in the heart the sure Word of Prophesie in the heart And yet thou art so impudent as to say Out with the Scriiptures of truth and follow the Law of his own heart Is the Law of God in the heart Or the Light of Christ in the heart Or the Word of Faith in the heart Or the sure Word of Prophesie which is the Testimony of Jesus in the heart Is this the Law or the imagination of his own heart Thou hast no cover for thy wickedness here but hast manifestly published thy folly and thy envy in charging T. S. for outing the Scriptures of truth when he hath cited the Scriptures of truth for proof of what he hath spoken therefore because thy wickedness is so plainly and openly discovered in setting thy self through envy to oppose gain-say and resist the truth the less needs be spoken in answer to it if any wil believe thee or be deceived by thee herein it is such who are willingly ignorant and are given up to believe lyes and their blood will be upon their own heads But although T. C. hath cited the Law and Testimony for a Rule yet when T. S had proved by the Scriptures of Truth that this Law and Testimony is within in the heart it 's like T. C. had no mind to join Issue or plead with him for he well knows that should he speak no more of the Law of God or of the Testimony of Jesus then what is manifest in him and written in his heart his mouth and the mouths of many of his Brethren would soon be stopt for though that which may be known of God is manifest within according to the Scripture yet they that believe not in that which doth make manifest but are enemies to it they know little of God or of his Law or Testimony neither is it their rule Now that which doth make manifest is light Eph. 5. 13. But T. C. saith Your faith is not in a light within therefore your Faith is not in that which doth make manifest and how then should you know the things of God or his Law and Testimony of which the Scriptures of truth declares And thus though in words you profess God and talk of his Law and Testimony to be your rule yet in works you deny him and his Law of righteousness is cast behind your backs and the Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophesie you have denyed and despised neither is his Law your Rule or his Light your Guide witness your own confession in Tiverton Epistle Therefore I say Should T. C. plead onely from what of God is manifest in him he would have very little to say and so no marvel if he refufe to joyn Issue with T. S. upon those terms Thou saist T. S. hath said That T. C. is against the Saints attaining to perfection and freedom from sin whilst in this mortal state And thou saist He is not against perfection by faith in Christ their perfection to be in another nor is he against pressing after perfection but such a perfection as the Quakers boast of he is against c. To which I say The perfection which the people call'd Quakers own and press after is the same which the Saints and Servants of God in all ages did press after of which the Scriptures of truth makes mention which is to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord and to know him to work all their works for them and in them whose works are perfect in the sight of God whereby all boasters and boasting is excluded and this perfection thou saist T. C. is against and indeed I believe it and herein the truth of T. S. his words are verified But what perfection or freedom from sin such do own or press after who are drawing iniquity with cords of vanity and in whose souls such abominations reigns and out of whose hands all weapons are wrested with which they should make war against sin I leave to the wise in heart to judge It seems the perfection which you own is at a great distance from you and not holyness perfected in you but in another and so you imagine it shall be imputed yours hereafter when you are dead though you are perfecting wickedness and ungodliness all your life long and this imagination you call Faith in Christ But though we own no other perfection then that which is by Faith in Christ who is the perfection of his people and is all in all to them yet except you know him to live in you and know him to work in you both the will and the deed even he of whom its said That he came to do the will of God and so to know perfection and freedom from sin in your selves wrought by another it will avail you nothing to say you own perfection in another for what the better are you to tell of perfection and freedom from sin in another whilst you are imperfect and are servants unto sin And what pressing after perfection or freedom from sin is there like to be with such who affirm that God never had yet a church in the World without sin and that who ever affirm the contrary are Hypocrites Would any that believes this press after that which none yet could ever attain Or is not this to press after an impossibility And if by pressing after it they should attain to it and make confession of it it seems they must be accounted hypocrites this is small encouragement to any to press after perfection or freedom from sin But we are not ignorant what that imagined perfection is of which you speak and which you say you press after for although abominations reigns in your souls and iniquity apparently written on your foreheads heads and that you are even drawing it as with Cart-Ropes yet because you can sometimes make a hypocritical confession of this condition and therewith mock God as you confess you have done often this is call'd a pressing after perfection And because you have read in the Scriptures of the Righteousness of Christ you imagine that his Righteousness shall be imputed yours and serve to cover your unrighteousness and this is your perfection as
AN EQUAL BALLANCE WHEREIN The Ministers and Churches of of the Anabaptists so called are truly weighed c. ALthough many are risen up in this Age and Generation and are joined in confederacy to make war with the Lamb and his followers who hath both with Tongue and Pen set themselves to oppose gain-say and resist the Truth and to raise all manner of false reports and slanders which their wicked hearts can imagine to cast upon it and upon those who in sincerity of heart walk in it thereby to affright the ignorant and deceive the simple lest they should turn from their wickedness and be converted and be healed and so even shut the Kingdom of heaven against men neither entring in themselves nor suffer those to go in that would yet amongst them all I have not observed any more desperately wicked and notoriously impudent then the forementioned Author hath manifested himself in a sheet of Paper as one indeed past feeling given up to a reprobate mind as if his conscience were double seared or as one that cannot blush vvhen he hath done vvickedly neither is it pleasant to me to meddle vvith such noysom stuff or the foame of such an unclean spirit vvho like the raging sea casts up mire and dirt even foaming out his ovvn shame but having considered the said Paper and finding it stuft vvith such notorious lyes and abominable falshoods and in particular one most horrible false Accusation to vvhich I shall speak more particularly in its proper place and knovving it meet that such a forger of lyes should not be hid nor pass without rebuke and also that the truth might be cleared from those false aspersions cast upon it and in love and tenderness towards them who are at present deceived by the lyes and by the lightness of those who usurp Authority over them by whom their hands are strengthened in wickedness so that they cannot return from the evil of their wayes that they might come to see the gross hypocrisie and palpable deceit of those by whom they are now led captive and so come to be redeemed out of the snares of the Devil and come to hear the voice of the true Shepherd and particularly to discover to them the impudency and wickedness of the said Author who hath most maliciously with his venemous Asp-poysoned tongue struck at the innocent and under lyes and falshoods hath endeavoured to hide and cover himself in the absence of Thomas Salthouse For the Truth's vindication I was câ—nstrained to write something in answer to it and although the Author hath so maliciously and wickedly slandered and reproached Thomas Salthouse and others in his said Paper yet I shall not make it my work to vindicate Persons but Truth which is chiefly my aim and end in this undertaking and in clearing the truth from those false Aspersions Reproaches Lyes and Slanders which the said Author hath cast upon it the innocency of those at whom in particular he strikes will not onely be clearly vindicated but also his own folly and wickedness be fully manifested who probably to hide himself from the light hath refufed to subscribe his Name to his Paper which renders it in the esteem of all people of understanding to be of no credit and to be reputed as a slanderous Libel His main work in his Paper wherein he hath so wickedly and impudently slandered and falsly accused the innocent seems to be a Vindication of Thomas Collier and though he hath not named himself yet by his Work he hath manifested himself to be in the same nature with T. C. if not in the same person for whoever hath viewed the Writings of T. C. especially those in which he hath set himself to resist and speak evil of the Truth and the right wayes of God namely his Dialogue his Looking-Glasse so called his Answer to T. S. his Epistle c. compared with this sheet of Paper might almost conclude by the method which he follows That this also is his Work for impudency and lyes are the strength of his Arguments and his own affirmations offered for proof of his Assertions when it is but the same lye told over again onely this last seems to come forth with more impudency then the former as if he had now poured forth some of the very bottom and dregs of that wickedness of which the other was the froth and the scum Now the Author having concealed his Name I could not direct a particular Answer to him and therefore by advice of some Friends drew up this sollowing Paper to make publike inquiry after him and to that end caused it to be posted in several Market Towns in the County of Somerset FOrasmuch as there lately came to our view ae certain printed Paper entitulâ—d The Hypocrisie and Falshood of Thomas Salthouse discovered a noted Quaker containing in it many lyâ—s and â—alse assertionâ— and published in the Vindication of Thomas Collier as by the Contents thereof appears And whereas the Author â—herâ—of being as we have just cause to think conscious of his own guilt in puâ—lishing such lyes and falshoods and to hide himself from the reproof of truth and shame due to such a worker of darkness hath refused to own it by subscribing his Name These are therefore to give notice That if the Author thereof hath not concealed his Name for these or the like reasons let him manifest the contrary by discovering his Name to any one of the Subscribers that so a particular Answer may be 〈…〉 some of us being concerned therein particularly and in the mean time there is no rational man hath ground to credit that which the Author himself appears not to own Jasper Batt John Collins John Dando William Beaton Robert Wastfeild But as yet the Author hath not discovered his Name to any one of us and therefore I shall proceed to speak something in answer to his Paper and so let it go abroad to find out the unnamed Author And first he saith as the Title of his Paper The hypocrisie and falshood of T. S discovered a noted Quaker manifested in a pretended line of true Judgement To which I answer Thou hast plainly discovered thy self to be the hypocrite though under falshood thou hast endeavoured to hide thy self and the Truths asserted by T. S. stands over thee and his Judgement is according to Truth as will more evidently appear when the filth and dirt which thou hast endeavoured to cast upon it is wiped away And this is one of thy marks whereby thou art known to be an hypocrite in that thou hast slandered and reproached persons and Principles publikely in print and then left thy Wickedness should be discovered thy lyes and falshoods be turned upon thee like the Thief or the Murderer which are afraid of the light thou hast endeavoured to hide thy self by refusing to subscribe thy Name in token of owning thy Work Thou sayest The abominable hypocrisie and falshood manifested in T. S. his
pretended Line of true Judgement occasioned thee to let it lye for some time by thee c. I say Thou speakest great swelling words of vanity thereby to allure those who live with thee in Error crying out of the hypocrisie falshood of T. S. but is it not strange to hear one in whom abomination reigns to cry out of abomination in others And to hear a Hypocrite cry out of Hyocrisie and a lyar to cry out of falshood But by so doing he that is indeed the notorious lyar and the abominable hypocrite may have hopes to pass undiscovered Thou sayest Yet for Truth's sake and for the sakes of poor souls thou wilt give a very brief touch in a sheet of Paper c. To which I say It is not thy pretences will hide thee the light hath discovered thee and thy unclean spirit and thy fruits doth manifest thee to all who have an eye open to see thee and though thou pretend a care for truth poor souls yet thou art found to be one of Truth's greatest Enemies and one that labours to keep souls in blindness and ignorance and by this Work of wickedness thou haft endeavoured to touch the Lord 's Annointed and to harm his Prophets for which the Lord will reprove thee in the day of account which is near at hand Thou recitest some of T. S. his words in the Title Page of his Book where he saith The exaltation of the Spiritual Man with his Ordinances and Administrations above the Man of Sin with the weak and unprofitable Ordinances that doth not make the comers there unto perfect Which sound wholsome Words of his thou goest about most wickedly to pervert and his plain and honest intention most falsly and hypocritically to interpret saying The Spiritual Man must be the light within their own fancy and imagination which they perswade all to follow and Jesus Christ crucified raised and ascended and made Lord and Christ he must be the man of sin Truly if thou hadst not as it were a brow of Brass thou wouldst blush and even tremble to utter such blasphemous words as these Didst thou never think to give an account for these with other thy hard ungodly speeches which in the pride of thy heart thou hast uttered forth Thou accusest T. S. in thy Paper for Hypocrisie and wretched perverting Now let all sober-minded people judge whether thou be not manifestly guilty of that evil which thou falsly chargest upon him But because there is some words of truth mixed with thy unclean filthy language though it comes out of a polluted Vessel I shall separate it from the rest and when the Jewel is taken out of the Swine's snout the remainder may be bundled up for the fire Thou saist The Spiritual Man must be the light within To which I say The Spiritual Man is light and the light of Christ is spiritual and the Spiritual Man is within even the hidden man of the heart and he that knows not this Spiritual Man living in him is not a Member of the Church of Christ and he in whom the Spiritual Man lives doth thereby mortifie the deeds of the flesh and his mortal body comes to be quickened by the Spirit which dwelleth in him and hereby he is made a member of the Church of Christ and no otherwise and comes to partake of his Ordinances and knows his Administrations and so comes to be exalted above the Man of Sin and stands over all the beggarly rudiments and traditional invented Will-Worships set up in the imagination which doth not purifie the heart nor purge the conscience from dead works nor give victory over the World and so makes not the comers thereunto or practisers of them perfect but perisheth with the using and this is not fancy nor imagination but sound and wholesome Doctrine according to the Scripture of truth neither do we at any time perswade any to follow their own fancies imaginations as thou most wickedly and falsly chargest us but it is Christ the true light the Spiritual Man who leads out of darkness all that follow him and from every vain imagination it is him alone that we exhort all men to obey and follow And the reason that thou givest why Jesus Christ crucisied raised and ascended c. must be the Man of Sin is Because thou sayest it is his Ordinances you follow and plead for according to the Scriptures Thou sayest You own Jesus Christ crucified and justification by Faith in his blood which Faith purifies the heart though you confess that abomination reigns in your souls and that iniquity is apparently written on your fore-heads and that you are drawing it with cords of vanity and Baptism with Water after believing and Church-fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayer c. and this thou sayest T. S. calls the Ordinances of the Man of Sin which is another most abominable falshood charged upon him When Or where did he ever call Justification by Faith in the blood of Christ Baptism breaking of Bread and Prayer c. which are Ordinances of Christ the Ordinances of the Man of Sin Thou hast made a great outcry of the hypocrisie and falshood of T. S. doubling it over to four times in thy title page and yet before thou concludest the same page how manifestly and publikely dost thou play the hypocrite with him in drawing such a damnable Conclusion from his Words and most wickedly and falsly to accuse him saying He calls the Ordinances of Christ the Ordinances of the man of sin when at the utmost it is but the deceit of thy own wicked heart and not his words nor intentions as may evidently appear to any who have but the least measure of honesty to judge But what though you in a hypocritical manner according to the vain and foolish imaginations of your dark hearts have fancied to your selves a Worship in your Wills and practise things in imitation of others which you say you plead for and follow and call Ordinances of Christ because the Scripture declares that such things were practised by those who were thereto led by the Spirit of God though you from that Spirit are erred and saith the Scripture is your Rule must it therefore follow that T S. doth account Jesus Christ crucified c. to be the Man of Sin and his Ordinances the Ordinances of the Man of Sin Oh wicked and damnable Conclusion drawn from such an Argument Thou tells of the Quaker's Logick surely this may truly be call'd the Devil's Logick for greater Wickedness and more horrible iniquity I believe never dropped from the Pen of any one that pretends to plead for and follow Ordinances of Christ but it is not your professing the Name of Christ or professing Justification by Faith in his Blood or practising things by imitation and calling it the Ordinances of Christ that will avail you any thing whilest the Man of Sin bears rule and is exalted in you for notwithstanding your profession
all other people doth not pluck them down from their excellency it is not a wretched wordly spirit but the spirit of God by which they overcome the world and this spirit was in the Saints and Church of Christ of which the Scriptures of truth doth witness and they had received that Grace which taught them to deny ungodliness worldly lusts and had escaped the pollutions which are in the world through lusts they did witness that Faith which overcomes the world and knew him to live in them by whom the world is overcome and were directed and commended to that Grace which was able to build them up and they were built up together and became a habitation of God through the Spirit even a spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God 1 Cor. 2. 12. Gal. 6. 14. Tit 2. 12. 2 Pet 1. 4. 1 Ioh. 5. 4. Acts 20. 32. Eph. 2. 20 21 22. Iude 20. 1 Pet. 2 5. Isa. 28. 5 6. Isa. 61. 3. By all which it appears how much you differ from the Church of Christ insomuch that the absolute contrary marks fruits and effects doth appear in you and amongst you as was in them and amongst them but you are of those who turn again with the dog to the vomit and with the Sow that was washed to the wallowing in the mire who were indeed once more excellent while you were little in your own eyes before you were thus setled on your Lees there was a time when there was breathings in some of you after the Lord and something which did hunger and thirst after righteousness and there was then some tenderness amongst you and a sensibleness of something that was oppressed and held captive as under the power of a strange King and then there was some groanings for deliverance and some desires raised in you after the Lord and after purity and holiness which did render you comely whilst you abode in that state but you have lost that condition and the cry of the oppressed is not regarded by you but you are joyned and become one wiâ—â—â—he oppressor and that which oncâ— breathed to be delivered from the bondage of corruption you have even choaked strangled and so you never knew that born or brought forth which is heir of Gods Kingdom but an untimely birth is brought forth and you are sate down by the way in an empty form wanting the life and power and have taken up a false rest but the true rest you have not known And thus a wretchedworldly spirit hath overcome you accompanied with many other evils of the like nature by your own confession and hath pluckt you from that excellency which you once had and hath defaced that comeliness which was once upon you and hath left blackness and deformity upon you and those desires which once appeared amongst you are forgotten and the tenderness quite lost and hardness of heart got up and nothing remains but deadness and dryness and emptiness amongst you according to your confession and thus the seed even rots under the clods and you dwell in a Land of darkness where the presence of the Lord is not found to refresh you nor the dew of the lasting Hills falls not on you but you remain dry and barren bringing forth no fruit to God but deceit and abomination rules in your hearts and the man of sin is exalted in you above all that is called God and great clusters of the sowre Grapes of Sodom appear amongst you and is plentifully brought forth by you to the dishonor of God So your latter end is worse then your beginning Again you say in your said Epistle You have been as in a great measure without the sence of the work so without the true travel of soul which this work should have pat you into So hereby you utterly exclude your selves from being a Church of Christ and are manifested in a great measure to differ from them for if you are insensible of the work of God amoâ—â—sâ— you and in you and if it be not he that worketh the will and the deed and that works all your works for you and in you then you are doing your own works and your righteousness is your own and not the Lords so your righteousness is the same with that of the Scribes Pharisees who were not the Church of Christ but those who crucified him But the Church of Christ were sensible of the work of God in them and amongst them as the Scriptures of truth doth witness and they gave a particular relation thereof how it wrought in them saying That patience worketh experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed and these were the works of God in them of which they were sensible they said Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou hast wrought all our works in us So they were sensible of the work and of him that worketh and they knew that they were of God and that the Son of God was come who had given them an understanding to know him that was true and they were in him that is true and they testified that this was the true God and eternal life and those were not insensible but had their sences exercised in the knowledge of the Work of God and they had known the terrors of the Lord and therefore did perswade men and so were not insensible of the Work as the Scriptures witnesseth Rom. 5. 4 5. Isa. 26. 12. 1 Ioh. 5. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 11. Again the Church of Christ had known the true travel of soul and witnessed the birth which is born of the Spirit which inherits the Kingdom of God of which travel it seems you are ignorant and therefore never came to the birth which is immortal but they had cryed as a Woman in travel and felt the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child and every man was seen with his hands upon his loins as a Woman in travel and they have also known the deliverance and forgotten the anguish and the pain for joy that a Man-child is born and the Minister of Christ said That he travelled in pain until Christ was formed in them And they were born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever as the Scriptures doth witness Ier. 4. 31. Mic. 4. 10. Gal. 4. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 23. But you who are without the sence of the Work and have not known the souls travel are not born of the seed which is incorruptible and so not heirs of Gods promise for the promise is to the Seed in which all the Nations of the earth are blessed and those who are not born of the Seed wch is incorruptible they are under the curse in the transgression alienated from the life of God strangers from the Common-Wealth of Israel out of Gods Covenant with whom the Church of Christ can have
distinguished from other people by the name of Quaker did ever either in Bristol or elsewhere either publikely or privately speak utter or declare these or any such like words and therefore be it hereby known unto thee who art our accuser and to all that own thee and to all people wheresoever this shall come that thou art hereby charged and required to bring forth the Author or Authors of this false accusation which thou call'st credible testimony that so the whole sum of this matter may be found out to the end that those who are guilty may be discovered and their wickedness disclosed that to shame they may be brought and from them and their wickedness all that fear God may turn away and of them beware and also that the innocent may be cleared and the truth vindicated and for this cause chiefly it was that publike inquiry was made after thy Name to the end the truth of this matter may be known and therefore if thou shalt refuse thus to do then in the presence of the Lord God upon thy own head shall this false accusation be charged to stand for ever and all that either own thee or believe what thou hast said and shall not endeavour to bring this matter to a just tryal are not onely willing to be deceived by thee but also guilty of thy most abominable wickedness therefore until thou hast done according to what I have said this also shall be numbred amongst the rest of thy lyes and false accusations But it seems though thou hast done with T. S. thou haft not emptyed out all the abominable broth out of thy boiling pot or unclean vessel under which the fire of Envy doth continually burn but John Collins must also have a part of it something to asswage thy malice and allay thy burning heat and although thou canst not touch him concerning any thing which he hath written yet thou wilt assault him with a company of lyes and false accusations which thou hast mustered up against him which should they be severed from the rest of that wch thou hast written there would remain very little to be answered unto But I shal not need to trace thee in all thy crooked waies and by-pathes I having alreadie sufficientlie laid thee open and discovered thy follie and wicked lying spirit to all who have an eie open to see thee therefore I shall speak brieflie to some particulars and so conclude Thou saist He confesseth he was one with you in the form of Truth But where is that confession I am sure he doth not say any such thing in that Book to which this sheet of thine is a pretended Answer nor I think no where else For it is a very easie matter to prove that you are neither in the form nor power of Truth but out of both But this he confesseth That he was owned a Brother by you whilst running into the same excess of riot but since in mercie visited he hath been hated and despitefullie used by some of you which is not the Form of Truth to use any one despitefullie Thou saist A day will come that John Collins and others shall not boast of their gain in leaving you when they shall know it to be the saddest seperation that ever they made And yet thou saist in the same Paper over and besides all the great wickednesses reigning abominations and apparent iniquities whereof you confess your selves to be guiltie in your Tiverton-Epistle Thou knowest that you are bad and that you need purging and more of the sence of the evil of your own hearts and that you need a lamentation c. And wouldst thou perswade J. C. or any other that ever they shall repent their leaving you or repent that the Lord hath seperated them from such a companie Verilie when ever they look back upon you and remember the deliverance that the Lord hath wrought for them in seperating them from amongst you they have as much cause to rejoice if not more then Lot had when he escaped out of Sodom or the Israelites when delivered from Aegyptian darkness and bondage Thou saist They have seperated themsslves from the Law and Word of Truth I say They are seperated from a companie of hypocrites who have cast the Law of Truth behind their backs and have hated instruction and rebelled against the light following their vain imaginations which they call Ordinances of Christ who confess they have delighted to confess and to word it out with the Lord and presently forget what manner of men and women they were and think no more on their prayers and so have mocked God often it is from such they are seperated But to the Word of Truth which is Christ the light of the World are they turned and his Law which is light which is written in the heart have they received and the Word at which you stumble is a lanthorn to their feet and a light unto their pathes who in times past did wander with you in dark and sollitarie places and in the valley of the shadow of death stumbling upon the dark and barren Mountains wandering from Mountain to Hill after those who cryed Lo here and lo there and where you are yet wandering in your vain imaginations who knows not the Law nor Word of Truth Thou saist If you could or dare to lye as fast as they you could quickly be as perfect and as free from sin as they c. I say Witness T. Colliers Writings and this Sheet of thine whether you dare to lie or no I verilie believe more impudent Liars did never appear in Print and you have attained to as great a measure of perfection in that part of your Fathers Work who was a Liar from the beginning and the Father of it as any people that ever I heard of who pretend they plead for and follow Ordinances of Christ But this is not our waie of perfection or freedom from sin it is Christ the Truth and the Light that is our waie of perfection and by him alone it is that we have freedom and remission of sins not through lying though you make use of that waie to cover your selves in your sins but the light hath discovered you your bed is too short and your covering too narrow Your iniquities are apparent and your abominations and transgressions cannot be hid and the day is come wherein your refuge of lyes unto which you have leaned and into which you have fled for shelter from the stroke of truth must be swept away Thou saist Heaven and Earth and our own consciences doth witness that what T. C. hath written concerning our principles is truth To which I say That both Heaven and Earth and the Witness of Truth in our own consciences doth testifie against thee that thou art a most abominable Lyar and a false Accuser and were not thy conscience seared thou wouldst tremble to utter such damnable lyes but know assuredlie that the righteous God will bring thee